


Archimedean Point

by Trobadora



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Episode: s01e13 The Parting of the Ways, Episode: s03e11 Utopia, Gen, Time Lord senses
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-01-09
Updated: 2008-01-09
Packaged: 2017-10-06 14:33:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/54717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Trobadora/pseuds/Trobadora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>That is what Jack is now.</i> Set toward the end of The Parting of the Ways.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Archimedean Point

_"I bring life."_

And there it is - he can feel it happening, feel the universe shift. He can feel his gut twist, can feel the bottom falling out of his world, and for a moment he's adrift, utterly adrift, his time sense spinning - there is no past and no future, no _now_, everything's changing ...

... and then ...

... then, with another violent twist, time settles again, into a new shape that now has always been - a new Time, that the former should not be remembered, nor come into mind. For anyone but _him_, the Doctor, who is not bound by the laws of linear time, and can remember even what never was.

What never was: Time, ever-shifting and mutable, a thing that knew no absolutes.

What is: a fixed point, a still centre, around which it all revolves.

Something that is _impossible_ \- something that hurts just to see, even from a distance, even only with his time sense, because it goes against everything the Doctor knows, everything he is.

_Jack._

Jack, who has become the stillness at the centre of time. A beacon in the darkness. A magnet for a Time Lord's senses.

Even human apes know that much: "Give me a solid point to stand on, and a long enough lever, and I will move the Earth."

That is what Jack is now: an impossible Archimedean point, unavoidable and terrible.

Terrible, indeed: After all, the Doctor now has that point to stand on, and a Time Lord's mind is lever enough.

And he's incredibly, horribly afraid of what he might do with it.

He _runs_.

He runs like hell, and doesn't look back.


End file.
